People in Manitowoc Do Not Want To Talk to You About Making a Murderer

Since everyone who watched Netflix's Making a Murderer became an amateur sleuth/lawyer, they've been flooding the police and tourism departments of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, with their opinions.

The New York Times reporter who wrote the front-page story about the Steven Avery case a decade ago, which inspired filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos to make a documentary about it, returned to the rural town to see how things have changed. What she found is that the people of Manitowoc are sick and tired of the Making a Murderer frenzy.

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"It's not how Manitowoc wants to be put on the map," Sheriff Hermann told The Times.

They report that even the Manitowoc County Historical Society has been getting phone calls with "yelling, cussing and swearing" fans who believe Avery is innocent.

"We lived through this 10 years ago," said Jason Ring, president of the Manitowoc Area Visitor and Convention Bureau. "We made our judgment, and the trial came to an end, and locally most people were in support of that. Now it's back—by no choosing or no doing of anyone in this community. So that's the first point of injustice. That we have to live through it again."

While thousands of people have signed petitions for Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey to be pardoned, the people of Manitowoc have not changed their minds about Avery.

"Look, we lived this whole thing like a juror," Suszanne Fox said. "He was guilty as sin."